For thousands of years before Europeans arrived, Ohlone people lived along the San Mateo coast in small, scattered villages, because the land could support only so many people. At Fitzgerald Marine Reserve in Moss Beach, people lived there about 5,800 years ago.
Mission records say the Chiguan Ohlone, who numbered about 50, called the Princeton area Ssatumnumo and had a second village, Chagunte, near today’s Half Moon Bay. A recorded Ohlone archaeological site, SMA-151, lies on the bluff above Pillar Point Harbor.
The native way of life changed quickly in the late 1700s, when Europeans arrived and the coast became pasture for Mission Dolores cattle.
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